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Year you started climbing.


Skeezix

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Thielson July 15 1957 and still going - SLOWLY
I believe you win. ...I'm just glad there are some old guys on here that remember EBs and Goldline... bigdrink.gif

 

What's even more impressive is if you go repeat some of Gary's routes. Amazing what he pulled off years ago considering the gear options at the time. bigdrink.gif Gary.

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Thielson July 15 1957 and still going - SLOWLY
I believe you win. ...I'm just glad there are some old guys on here that remember EBs and Goldline... bigdrink.gif

 

What Skeezix, you started in 1975 and don't remember EBs and Goldline? I started in 1972 at Joshua Tree and remember them well. Guidebook was about 50 pages long and you could pull into Hidden Valley Campground friday night and have your choice of sites. Goldline was the tool to use until you could save up the bucks for one of those fancy perlon things. I think our first was a 9mil because it was cheaper. EB's were advanced shit -- I first used some big ass hiking boots (Lowa Scouts) then graduated to real climbing boots, Calcaires, which were some black euro Robbins Blue Boot equivalent. EB's those were the ticket, and all you needed to know was your size.

1970eb.jpg

 

1957 though, that's awesome. thumbs_up.gif Do you have any way-back-in-the-day photos scanned that you could post? I'd love to see 'em.

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Summer, 1995: First time climbing: followed a 5.6

A month later, 1995: First lead of a 5.6

Fall, 1995: First leader fall on a 5.6 (fitting eh)

Spring, 1996: First onsite of a 5.6

Summer 1996: First free solo of a 5.6

 

All TRAD, beeeotch!

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1973 - Peshastin Pinnacles, bivy'd on top of Orchard Rock

1974 - Castle Rock, lead Canary, 1 fall getting into the chimney. mowed lawns to buy EB's & harness (Whillans)

1975 - Mt. Stuart, Dragontail, Mt. Rainier

1976 - married boxing_smiley.gif

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All TRAD, beeeotch!

 

Psh. Wanker. rolleyes.gif

 

Clip some bolts, eh?

 

Dude, I like onsite 5.7+ on the east coast. Obviously I don't need the accelerated technique improvement that sport climbing has to offer. And I do it smooth too, no elvising or anything.

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1974 - Mt. Hood. I was 10 and tossed my cookies going around Crater Rock. Nice stench! frown.gif Been up almost 50 times since. A friend and I were trying to complete the Mazamas 16 Peaks patch by age 16. He did it. I fell short by a couple of years.

 

Climbed St. Helens twice before it blew (Sugar Bowl? Dog's Head? Great glissade of the Dog's head! thumbs_up.gif). Was on the summit of Hood about 8:45am on May 18, 1980. That was something! hellno3d.gifhellno3d.gifhellno3d.gif

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What Skeezix, you started in 1975 and don't remember EBs and Goldline?
Are you kidding? Of course I remember EBs and Goldline. I may still have my first pair of EBs... I remember doing laps around Spire Rock in 1978 where I met this other young guy named Jim Yoder. We used to meet up at Spire Rock and boulder for hours -then he moved to Leavenworth. I was a climbing instructor for the 9th Infantry Division in Leavenworth during the summer of 78. We used a mil spec version of Goldline called Greenline. It was green (duh) and not as stiff as Goldline. We had heavy steel biners and led groups of soldiers in a week-long climbing course modeled after the Mountaineers Basic Course. We had a special permit from the USFS to camp uphill from Bridge Creek CG on the other side of the Icicle. There was a back trail from our camp that led down to Classic Crack. We did laps on that every night after dinner and a couple of bowls snuck away from the Officer in Charge. (Strains of Springsteen's Glory Days in the background...)I was a CLIMBER, man! That was my identity and self concept.
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Climbed Helens twice before it blew (Sugar Bowl? Dog's Head? Great glissade of the Dog's head! thumbs_up.gif). Was on the summit of Hood about 8:45am on May 18, 1980. That was something! hellno3d.gifhellno3d.gifhellno3d.gif

 

Do you have any pictures? hellno3d.gif

 

 

When I first started rock climbing in middle school (~1988) I didn't own any gear so my friend and I shared his pair of shoes. After middle school I didn't climb again until a girlfriend got me into it again (~1999) - the best thing I got out of that relationship.

 

My first pair of shoes I ever owned were a pair of EBs I found in the attic of a house I moved into during college. I imagine I looked pretty silly climbing at the Portland Rock Gym in 1999 wearing EBs. yellaf.gif

 

I still own them and keep thinking about wearing them to Stone Gardens some night.

 

442893-EBshoesReszie.jpg

442893-EBshoesReszie.jpg.9f345df1c7c7f9d098028f1dd2280cda.jpg

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What Skeezix, you started in 1975 and don't remember EBs and Goldline?
Are you kidding? Of course I remember EBs and Goldline. I may still have my first pair of EBs... I remember doing laps around Spire Rock in 1978 where I met this other young guy named Jim Yoder. We used to meet up at Spire Rock and boulder for hours -then he moved to Leavenworth. I was a climbing instructor for the 9th Infantry Division in Leavenworth during the summer of 78. We used a mil spec version of Goldline called Greenline. It was green (duh) and not as stiff as Goldline. We had heavy steel biners and led groups of soldiers in a week-long climbing course modeled after the Mountaineers Basic Course. We had a special permit from the USFS to camp uphill from Bridge Creek CG on the other side of the Icicle. There was a back trail from our camp that led down to Classic Crack. We did laps on that every night after dinner and a couple of bowls snuck away from the Officer in Charge. (Strains of Springsteen's Glory Days in the background...)I was a CLIMBER, man! That was my identity and self concept.

Back in the early 80's I pilfered a bunch of fixed soft iron pins from (at the time) some obscure crag across the road from Bridge Creek CG. I assumed they were military issue.

Is it possible these were related to your activities in the Icicle?

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What Skeezix, you started in 1975 and don't remember EBs and Goldline?

 

Are you kidding? Of course I remember EBs and Goldline. I may still have my first pair of EBs... I remember doing laps around Spire Rock in 1978 where I met this other young guy named Jim Yoder. We used to meet up at Spire Rock and boulder for hours -then he moved to Leavenworth. I was a climbing instructor for the 9th Infantry Division in Leavenworth during the summer of 78. We used a mil spec version of Goldline called Greenline. It was green (duh) and not as stiff as Goldline. We had heavy steel biners and led groups of soldiers in a week-long climbing course modeled after the Mountaineers Basic Course. We had a special permit from the USFS to camp uphill from Bridge Creek CG on the other side of the Icicle. There was a back trail from our camp that led down to Classic Crack. We did laps on that every night after dinner and a couple of bowls snuck away from the Officer in Charge. (Strains of Springsteen's Glory Days in the background...)I was a CLIMBER, man! That was my identity and self concept.

Back in the early 80's I pilfered a bunch of fixed soft iron pins from (at the time) some obscure crag across the road from Bridge Creek CG. I assumed they were military issue.

Is it possible these were related to your activities in the Icicle?

No way. We were clean climbers . We were already starting our own collections of relic pitons.
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Do you have any pictures? hellno3d.gif

You know, I'm not sure. I know I don't. But I bet either my dad or a couple of the other guys that were with us do.

 

There were quite a few people climbing that day. The people that were coming down off the summit as we almost got there said that it looked like a pretty good eruption (compared to what had been going on in the months prior). I remember looking in that direction and expecting to see a cloud over St. Helens and then realizing how huge it really was. You just saw a dark mound in the distance, then this massive wall of black that went straight up, and then drifted to the east. It really was an awesome sight. But none of us truly knew the magnitude of what we saw until we got back to Portland.

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in 10,000 BC i made the first ascent of a brontosaurus, placing hand-chipped flint pitons along the way. this was before fire was invented so we could only do night descents using glow-worms, fireflies and bioluminescent alagae.

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